Physics was actually a dangerous sinkhole for my young undiagnosed adhd brain. There’s always something else to learn, some new rabbit hole to dive into, some cool research testing the limits of yet another poorly understood frontier. It’s like tvtropes but with the mysteries of the universe.
I was fascinated to learn everything, but could never hold a single subject long enough to comprehend it fully. I realized I would never hope to make a meaningful expansion or contribution to the science. You start out with ball bearing cannons and air hockey tables, and next thing you know you’re reading about string theory and supersymmetry, dark matter mathematics, the effect of gravity on time, bosons and gluons and photons, Oh my! Then you get an advisor who’s been studying the same formula on the same whiteboard for 60 years, trying to trisect an angle with naught but a compass, and if they are kind they tell you to run. If you’re smart, you listen.
One thing that may not be visible from outside the profession is that there are a lot of steps in between air-hockey tables and the research frontier, especially for the part of the frontier that gets the most press — black holes, Large Hadron Collider stuff, quantum computing, etc. Wanting to understand any of those things at a level better than (bong rip) man, like, quantum mechanics, dude, requires systematicstudy. Doing that entirely on one’s own might not be impossible, but it’s damn hard.
remember to carry the thumb drive with your personal frame of a blade of grass falling - you should all have been issued one in your welcome packs by cult greeter upon arrival
The orange site comments aren’t all worthless:
Physics was actually a dangerous sinkhole for my young undiagnosed adhd brain. There’s always something else to learn, some new rabbit hole to dive into, some cool research testing the limits of yet another poorly understood frontier. It’s like tvtropes but with the mysteries of the universe.
I was fascinated to learn everything, but could never hold a single subject long enough to comprehend it fully. I realized I would never hope to make a meaningful expansion or contribution to the science. You start out with ball bearing cannons and air hockey tables, and next thing you know you’re reading about string theory and supersymmetry, dark matter mathematics, the effect of gravity on time, bosons and gluons and photons, Oh my! Then you get an advisor who’s been studying the same formula on the same whiteboard for 60 years, trying to trisect an angle with naught but a compass, and if they are kind they tell you to run. If you’re smart, you listen.
One thing that may not be visible from outside the profession is that there are a lot of steps in between air-hockey tables and the research frontier, especially for the part of the frontier that gets the most press — black holes, Large Hadron Collider stuff, quantum computing, etc. Wanting to understand any of those things at a level better than (bong rip) man, like, quantum mechanics, dude, requires systematic study. Doing that entirely on one’s own might not be impossible, but it’s damn hard.
Great no problem I’ll just read through the sequences and be all caught up!
eyelid twitches
remember to carry the thumb drive with your personal frame of a blade of grass falling - you should all have been issued one in your welcome packs by cult greeter upon arrival
I keep it with me always, but never in plain sight in case a computer sees it through a webcam and starts getting ideas